Are you happy? A few years ago this question stuck in mind of two guys, Ryan and Joshua. Both were earning a huge amount of money from their corporate jobs, buying a lot of stuff like a car, house but failed to find contentment.

They realized that true happiness is not in buying stuff but living a meaningful life. Thus they became minimalist.

Ryan and Joshua embraced the life of minimalists. After a lot of research, experiments and trials they found five basic values to live a meaningful life. Those five values are health, relationship, passion, growth, and contribution.

Minimalism Book Summary: Health

Health is the most important value to live a meaningful life. Because without health you can’t do things you want to do. There is a big misconception about health. We think that being healthy means having huge muscles, six-pack abs. But being healthy is not about looking it’s about feeling better ( though looks come with it ).

Your health is depend upon two things. a) what you put into your body b) what you do with your body.

What you do with your body

Exercise is must. It is not just running five miles a day, going gym 4 days a week, you can build small habits like walking 10 mins, jumping etc. Most important think is you must enjoy and happy whatever you do.

Sleep

People often underestimate importance of sleep. Your body needs rest. You need to sleep at least six to eight hours to maintain your body at optimal level.

Minimalism Book Summary : Relationships

The importance of relationships

Relationships are important to live a meaningful life because you need someone who loves you, with whom you share your success and failures.

Evaluating current relationships

Sort out your all current relationships and classify them into primary, secondary and periphery.

Primary relationships are your closest relationships and main characters in movie of your life.

Secondary relationships are similar to primary relationships but of less value. This might include your some friends, boss, co-workers.

The third type of relationships is periphery relationships. These include people around you like neighbors, members of your community, etc. With this relationship, you find the least value.

After that list down effect of these relationships i.e, some relationships may create a positive, negative or neutral effect on your life. Now the most important part focus on only positive relationships. Give your time to only those people who add value to your life.

Minimalism Book Summary: Passion

Importance of cultivating passion

passion is one of the most important value to live a meaningful life. Imagine, you have great relationships, good health but you don’t find any excitement towards your work. You will feel empty. Thus you need to cultivate your passion.

Removing anchors to find your passion

To cultivate your passion, you have to identify it first. Mainly there are four anchors which restrict people from persueing their passion.

Removing the Anchor of identity

Who you are? This question seems easy but people often attach their vocation or job with who they are. You have to understand that you are not your job, much more than it. Attach a meaningful label to yourself like you are a brother, sister, contributor, a person capable of so much more. When you remove anchor of identity, u will be free to find passion.

Removing the Anchor of status

People attach social status to their employment. That is why people feel empty when they lose their job. So, don’t attach your identity and social status to your job. When you believe that you are much more than your job then u will find easy to remove other anchors as well.

Removing the Anchor of certainty

Certainty is necessary. You need to be certain about basic needs like food, shelter. But beyond that level certainty restrict yourself from making necessary changes. You hate your job but you find enough comfort with it as it pays your bills and thus doesn’t take action.

There are two ways to change this thought process. First, you can find a way to associate more pain with not changing. second, you can associate more pleasure with long term fulfillment of pursuing your passions and living your mission.

Removing the Anchor of money

Money is the number one reason people restrict themselves from pursuing their passion. Set the monthly budget including needs, wants, etc. Minimize expenses to only important things. Invest your earnings to enlarge it. It will take time but every penny counts. So, remove these anchors to find your passion.

Finding your passion

After removing anchors you are free to focus on your passion. Ask yourself a simple question ” What will you do with your life if money wasn’t an object? What excites you the most for the longest period of time? That is your passion.

Turning your passion into your mission

If you are thinking that you cant make living pursuing your passion then you’re wrong. There is always someone who is persuing that passion and making enough money. The best way is to find those people and implement them.

Growth

If you’re not growing, then you’re dying, If you’re dying then you are not living a meaningful life. You need to raise your standards, raise the bar a little bit every day. You will not see any results today but you will see the impact of improving each day after some period.

Contribution

Growth and contribution go hand in hand. As you grow, you have more of yourself to give. The more you help others, the more you will get in return. Thus leading a meaningful life.

Focus on the five values, minimize the clutter from your life and live a meaningful life.

With this, we came to the end of Minimalism Book Summary written by Ryan and Joshua. Hope you like it see you with new book summary happy reading and living a meaningful life.